Amazon’s ‘Prime Day’ shopping blitz to be held on July 12

Amazon stated it would be holding its second Prime Day sales event this July 12. The daylong event which Amazon said will remind one of Black Friday will have adequate inventory support along with lucrative deals.

As should already be perceptible, the sales extravaganza will only be open to Amazon Prime members and will be held simultaneously in U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria, besides of course the US. The sales bonanza kicks off in the US at midnight PT on July 12.

Amazon had first started its Prime exclusive sales program last year when it was held on June 15. However, the shopping site stated it would be a bigger event this time and will involve more products and will have the participation of more companies. There will be more than 100,000 deals offered during the daylong event, with a new deal available as frequently as in a five mins interval.

The online retail giant said it wishes to see this year’s event surpass last year’s record when about 400 items were ordered every second. Many customers then had complained of stocks getting sold out in mere seconds. To give prospective buyers an idea of how they have geared up for this year, the VP of Prime, Greg Greeley stated the inventory of a standard item like TV would be twice that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday taken together.

According to Amazon, among the items to look forward to including products that are “perfect for summer travel, for foodies and outdoor living, back-to-school and in-home essentials and daily deals on top of TV series and blockbuster movies.”

Amazon also said the fun would begin a week before the actual event by way of countdown deals where one can pick up a 32-inch TV along with a Fire TV stick for as low as just $119.99. Such countdown deal will start from July 5 and run through the 11th.

Amazon Prime now counts more than 54 million subscribers in the US, which marks a 35 percent improvement over 2014 figures. And with Amazon already having broken its 2014 Black Friday sales record during last year’s and inaugural Prime day sales, the retail giant is hoping to see even greater activity this year. The benchmark here is the $14 billion that Chinese retailer Alibaba has registered in a day during its Singles Day shopping festival.